FIG. 1 illustrates a mobile device 100 having an integrated digital camera which operates in accordance with known procedures. The mobile device 100 includes a display 101 that provides a viewfinder for the digital camera feature. The viewfinder is operative to display a scene captured by a lens and camera sensor of the digital camera equipment within a field-of-view 103. A focus reticle 105 may be controlled by a user and moved across or about the scene in the viewfinder and placed upon an object-of-interest, for example a building in a city skyline as illustrated.
For digital camera operation such as discussed in the example of FIG. 1, one of the largest contributors to the amount of time taken to capture an image is the time required to focus on the image to be captured. For example, the focusing procedure may be considered to include several steps: 1) Pointing the digital camera in the general direction of an object-of-interest; 2) Repositioning the digital camera to place the object-of-interest at a desired position on the digital camera's viewfinder; 3) Repositioning the focus reticle onto the object-of-interest; and 4) Performing a focus sweep operation by the digital camera.
Although the first and second steps can be accomplished relatively quickly by a user, the third step requires the user to use both hands, because one hand is required to hold the camera (or mobile device 100) and the second hand is required to position the focus reticle 105. The fourth step is dependent upon the focus technology employed by the digital camera, but may take anywhere from 300 ms to 1 s. Therefore, the third step of moving the focus reticle 105 and waiting for focus to complete, and the fourth step of performing the focus sweep are time consuming and can negatively impact the user's experience.